Acoustic Streaming and Its Suppression in Inhomogeneous Fluids.

We present a theoretical and experimental study of boundary-driven acoustic streaming in an inhomogeneous fluid with variations in density and compressibility. In a homogeneous fluid this streaming results from dissipation in the boundary layers (Rayleigh streaming). We show that in an inhomogeneous fluid, an additional nondissipative force density acts on the fluid to stabilize particular inhomogeneity configurations, which markedly alters and even suppresses the streaming flows.

Acoustic Force Density Acting on Inhomogeneous Fluids in Acoustic Fields.

We present a theory for the acoustic force density acting on inhomogeneous fluids in acoustic fields on time scales that are slow compared to the acoustic oscillation period. The acoustic force density depends on gradients in the density and compressibility of the fluid. For microfluidic systems, the theory predicts a relocation of the inhomogeneities into stable field-dependent configurations, which are qualitatively different from the horizontally layered configurations due to gravity.

Iso-acoustic focusing of cells for size-insensitive acousto-mechanical phenotyping.

Mechanical phenotyping of single cells is an emerging tool for cell classification, enabling assessment of effective parameters relating to cells' interior molecular content and structure. Here, we present iso-acoustic focusing, an equilibrium method to analyze the effective acoustic impedance of single cells in continuous flow. While flowing through a microchannel, cells migrate sideways, influenced by an acoustic field, into streams of increasing acoustic impedance, until reaching their cell-type specific point of zero acoustic contrast.

Forces acting on a small particle in an acoustical field in a thermoviscous fluid.

We present a theoretical analysis of the acoustic radiation force on a single small spherical particle, either a thermoviscous fluid droplet or a thermoelastic solid particle, suspended in a viscous and heat-conducting fluid medium. Within the perturbation assumptions, our analysis places no restrictions on the length scales of the viscous and thermal boundary-layer thicknesses δ(s) and δ(t) relative to the particle radius a, but it assumes the particle to be small in comparison to the acoustic wavelength λ. This is the limit relevant to scattering of ultrasound waves from nanometer- and micrometer-sized particles.